The Pont-Audemer Spaniel’s other nickname, “Le petit clown des marais” – “little clown of the marshes,”  hints at this breed’s specialty: An extraordinary ability to hunt in marshes. In fact, “Pontos” have been described as surpassing the hunting prowess of any other spaniel in that element. With an ancestry thought to include Irish Water Spaniel, Barbet and Poodle, it’s little wonder that the French breed developed in the 19th century is an exceptional swamp hunter – it’s a water baby!  That the “Ponto” is also a strong pointer, skilled retriever, tenacious tracker and a flushing fool unfazed by heavy vegetation can be attributed to the infusion of Brittany, Picardy Spaniel and English Setter blood, but at its heart, water is the Ponto’s specialty, and ducks and water fowl, its strength.

Most “Pontos” are bred in France, though Finland and Germany also have had one or two litters. As of 2011, it was thought that there were only three “Pontos” living in North America, all of them in Canada. The breed is not on rock solid footing. Its global population hovers at about 400 dogs, with fewer than forty are born each year. The success of a bitch named “Rage” in 2002 in a French field trial helped bring notice to the breed (“Rage” was the breed’s first spring and fall field trail champion) and perhaps increased participation in field trials, or the patronage of more hunters will up its numbers.

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